Follow me on Twitter

From around the net…

Posts Tagged ‘link of the week’

Today starts a new feature on the Kenny Chronicles: Link of the week. Every Friday from now until whenever, I’ll be linking to a comic that I follow. I’ll be going in nearly alphabetical order, and I will only link to comics that update at least once a week. There will be a few exceptions, since I’m making my own rules.

Today will be an exception to a couple rules. Today I’d like to point your attention to Comicraft, who are TODAY ONLY(all time zones) selling all their fonts for US$20.10 each in celebration of the new year. Even one that is normally US$395! The font I use in my comic was bought in last year’s New Years sale for $20.09 and is named “¡Los Vampiros!”. I bought the International version that is normally $99. Seriously, choose the International font if you use this sale, it costs the same and has ALL the accent marks and upside-down punctuation you could ever need. Comicraft has a LOT of great fonts for every purpose. For more information on the sale, click here.

And, I can’t mention Comicraft without mentioning Blambot, another font provider for cartoonists and illustrators. They have a wide variety of free fonts every day(generally without international letters), and their pay fonts are usually $US20. Most webcartoonists get their fonts here.
If you want to be more unique(some fonts get over-used, after all), I recommend Comicraft‘s sale. If you want a good font for free or when Comicraft isn’t doing their January 1st sale, I recommend Blambot.

Every Friday, I’m posting links to my favorite webcomics, and since I’m going alphabetically, that means the first comic to get a recommendation from me is Bear Nuts, by Alison Acton.

These bears live at the Discount Zoo and get gawked at, have stuff thrown at them by kids, and all around have no privacy. Well, they have their cave with their stolen plasma TV, couch, private bath and all the amenities, but it’s still humiliating. This character-driven story follows the lives of (in order of picture) Death Bear, Crack Bear, Gimpy Bear, Evil Bear, Prozac Bear(let’s hope there aren’t any trademark suits in Alison’s future), Nerd Bear, Tanked Bear, Gay Bear, and Lech Bear. It’s cute, very professionally-drawn(great expressions!), and has entertaining storylines. As you can tell from the picture, it’s not a kids comic(PG, maybe PG-13), and the first comic makes it clear what age-appropriateness to expect(okay, PG-13). I had the same tactic with my first Kenny Chronicles comic. It’s clear what Gimpy’s hobbies are between comics, and Tanked is always drunk. The character dynamics work well against each other. Evil Bear has horns! Death Bear can kill with a touch. Prozac Bear… well, just make sure his meds don’t run out.

Bear Nuts is the reason I’ve started offering vote incentives, too. They have a new vote incentive with each comic, and it’s gotten them VERY high up on the TopWebComics ranking(having a great comic helps too). I’ve gotten some traffic via TopWebComics, and I’ve started having some behind-the-scenes stuff to share(pics of the full 3D models used in recent comics), so I’m on board with the vote incentive idea. I already have a buffer building for them, too! WOW, A BUFFER!!!

World-traveler and cartoonist Ryan Estrada created a comic about a werewolf(She’s the one on the left), but this story occurs BETWEEN full moons. The comic makes great use of situational comedy, showing the guy bringing a girlfriend home so she can meet the parents, who seem very disapproving of her being a werewolf. The comic is an 8-page complete story, so don’t worry about it taking much of your time.

Here’s the big news, though: the comic is being turned into a movie! Ryan and his production team are independently creating it, and they need your help. If you help fund part of the movie, you can get anywhere from a mention in the film credits to a cameo, all the way up to having the world premiere right in your living room. There’s even an option to have your DOG featured in the movie, since the main character is a professional dog-walker.

I really want to see this movie finished. Ryan has done animation before, and has drawn comics for a significant portion of his life. He has the artistic chops to do this. If you contribute, tell them you heard about it here and a portion will be contributed to Kenny Chronicles as well! In fact, if this post leads you to get mauled by a werewolf, I’ll also contribute to have my name listed in the credits.

Whether you pay to have a cameo shot or not, read the comic. The link is right in their sidebar. I wouldn’t be making this post if there wasn’t a funny comic to link to. It’s worth reading.

This week, I’d like to share with you: Sasquatch. Or the yeti. Whatever you call him, also call him Charles Christopher because that’s his name.

Charles Christopher is a BEAUTIFULLY-drawn comic by Karl Kerschl(as if you couldn’t tell from the image), who happens to be a professional cartoonist(obvious in his art). He’s worked on such comics as Superman, Teen Titans, and The Flash! The art is both immersive and dynamic. The humor is silly and charming.

The story mostly focuses on Charles, although it bounces around to the various creatures of Cedar Forest. The skunks and the raccoons have been my favorite characters so far. Karl mixes very expressive, human-like expressions with realistically-drawn forest critters as if they’ve always talked like that. The skunks’ trademark thumbs-up always makes me giggle. Oh, and otters. There’s a storyline with otters!
But, it’s not all giggles and drunk sparrows. There are some serious storylines in there, mostly focusing on Vivol, the former circus bear that is now a respected resident of the forest. I personally prefer when the stories are funny, but the occasional character-building gives a lot more depth to the experience. These are characters that people care about, and the comments certainly back that statement up strongly. I’ve never seen a cheery sidekick character get so much response as Townsen.

The following strip, which is from my birthday, represents the comic pretty well:

Go read the comic at www.abominable.cc! I highly recommend starting at the beginning. The latest comic has humans speaking, which is downright out of the ordinary for this comic, hence the sample strip above. The comic updates every Wednesday.

It’s time for another link of the week! Going down my list of watched comics, the next one in alphabetical order is… The Book Of Biff.

The Book Of Biff is a single-panel weekdaily comic that focuses on Biff, a bizarre individual(whom I doubt is fully human) with huge eyebrows and a line for a mouth. He’ll often discover things like the green stuff with his sushi is NOT mint-flavored, or that having a detachable nose is a valuable asset for any babysitter. He occasionally visits the moon, grows mashed potatoes, and mixes tragically incompatible hobbies.
Chris Hallbeck does great visual gags, and is consistently funny. In addition to that, the blog posts underneath each comic are ALSO always entertaining. Usually he’ll tell of some related experience, which is scary enough that he’d actually have a related experience to what’s happening to Biff.

You can go enjoy the comic at www.TheBookOfBiff.com, and remember to watch out for his invisible green car.

This week’s link is for Doc Rat, a comic that features a lot of medical humor that will easily be funny to the general public. Jenner is a VERY talented artist, and apparently a doctor as well(write what you know). Usually the comics will play on words, although recently he’s had a storyline where the doctor(Benjamin Rat) has recently proposed to the dentist lady, right after fighting off a gang.

The comic isn’t the only feature on the website, though. There’s also a monthly caption contest! At the top, there’s a link that says “Prizes!”. If you click on it this month, you’ll see a puppy carrying a bedpan and a syringe. Submit a funny caption for that, and Jenner will send you the original artwork with your words added! There’s a link to the previous winners(and LOTS of great honourable mentions) from that page and from the home page. I’ve submitted one caption so far. It’s hard to come up with a funny caption or word bubble for someone else’s art.

The only nitpick I’d have is the lack of an rss feed, but I know of some workarounds. I haven’t shared my unofficial feed with anybody yet because there’s a 1-day delay due to the latest comic not being listed on the archives, plus some services don’t show it properly(works well in Google Reader). You can subscribe to that feed here. Another workaround is RSSPECT, which creates an rss feed based on when a page has changed. Unfortunately, it only tells you that it has updated, making it hard to pick up where you left off if you missed a few strips.

I’m glad that I’m able to keep up with this comic. It’s funny, it’s consistent, and it’s well-drawn. You can find it at http://www.docrat.com.au

Wild Onesis a Facebook game which pits 2-6 random players against each other and sets them loose with rockets, bombs, grenades and more. I love fighting games with cute characters! I wouldn’t mind if they added some blood to it, but that’s just personal preference.You start out the game with a dog, whose special weapon is a bomb shaped like a bone. After you level up a little, you get to add a bunny(superjumps!). You can customize the colors however you like, so I made myself a mini-Kenny! After you level up some more, you can buy a panda(punching power), and later a monkey(can climb walls, dude).

The game was already pretty cool in alpha testing, so I was excited when it finally went into beta mode. Playdom keeps adding more stuff and has a forum where you can suggest more features. I’m eager to find what they add next. They recently added a heart-shaped bomb for Valentine’s Day, as seen on the left.

While I’m on the subject of Facebook, I should also point out the Kenny Chronicles fan page. I keep an archive of old vote incentives and post site updates there, plus there are ways for fans to contribute to the fun in usual Facebook fashion.

Apologies to the rss readers, Twitterers and Facebook peeps who got this link of the week early, unfinished, and TWICE in past weeks.This week’s Link Of The Week is Broken Plot Device, centered around an easy-going coffee-lovin’ lizard(LizardBeth), a no-nonsense cougar(Max), a lion pirate(Sid), a magical dragon(Inix), a nerd iguana(Zig), a skirt-chasing wolf(Sylver), a mole named “Sunny”(appropriate name), an affectionate little robot dino(Rex), and a ninja(Phil). But mostly Liz, who happens to own a nuclear hoodie that Zig invented.

Lis Boriss has a lot of drawing experience, and it shows in the artwork. I was a fan of her art even before this comic launched. Liz is definitely modeled after Lis quite a bit, right down to being a cartoonist, so she does tread the line of being a “Mary Sue”-type character at first(definition is built into this sentence), but she has enough character flaws to keep her interesting, and the story keeps getting better. There’s currently a ninja spying on them, 2 tiny demons running around in the basement, and magical mayhem is about to happen. Lis is keeping up a good pace with the story. I just now read the entire archives again and am spotting so many things I missed the first time, and a few things that came into play later in the story. Mikey the plushy has always been around, in the background. There are lots of details in the story and the art. I recommend reading it from the beginning to fully understand everything in it, like what that “attack fetus” is.

Broken Plot Device is a consistently funny comic with a great story and EXCELLENT art. You can also buy the book, called “Nuclear Hoodie“, which makes for a very cool name. I’d rate this comic PG for some language and a little robot dino that just wants to be loved.

That’s the tag line for Evil Inc, drawn by the ever-busy Brad Guigar. It’s centered around a company made by, and for, villains. They sell all sorts of tools for mad scientists, power-hungry maniacs and strange abominations. Miss Match, who can create and control fire, was one of their top employees until she was fired.

On the hero side is Captain Heroic, who can fly, has super strength, and near invulnerability. He is also married to Miss Match and is the reason she got fired. The couple still hasn’t told their families about their spouses. Their son, Oscar, recently started going to the Evil Inc Charter School after his powers were becoming… problems at the public school.

The comic mostly deals with the goings-on within the company, which can get pretty bizarre due to the high concentration of supervillains. One of the evil scientists is a brain in a jar, which is connected to a dog’s head so he can get around and do stuff.

I first got into Evil Inc because Brad Guigar is one of the hosts of Webcomics Weekly, a show filled with tips for web cartoonists and is VERY funny. Brad has the best laugh ever. It’s a must-listen for any cartoonist, especially if you’re putting it online. It’s not weekly anymore, but that’s mostly because they’re all very busy with conventions and their comics, and they’ve already covered most of the big questions. The latest few are mostly fun webcomic discussion. If you want tips for your own comic, start at the beginning and ignore their initial opinions of Twitter(it was still new). You’ll laugh your head off AND write down a lot of notes. The first 38 episodes are located on Talkshoe. They also wrote the book “How To Make Webcomics“, which I own and attribute a lot of my webcomic know-how to. I have a friend considering starting a webcomic, and I still need to let him borrow that book.

They still do occasional episodes, but now that they’ve covered all the newbie stuff, Brad’s teaching concentration is webcomics.com, which offers detailed articles for cartoonists who are way past the beginner stage. It’s a pay-yearly site, but it looks very much worth the money if you’re selling books and showing at conventions. One of the contributers is the business guy for Penny Arcade, who is a genius.

But back to Evil Inc., it’s Monday-Saturday, full-color(he has an awesome colorist), often uses witty puns, and the art is on par with the best superhero comics. You can find it at Evil-comic.com.

So, judging by the zero response to the theme park post yesterday, I’ll just assume that people took my word for it that the theme park is happening. Now that it’s after April Fools’ Day, you can know for sure that this is the truth. I don’t know if anybody teleported to it, I don’t even have a feedback box set up on the property.
There’s not much to look at yet. I really hoped for an April 1st opening day, especially since I’ve been planning this since December. It seemed a good day to unveil something that’s initially unbelievable(plus, the whole 2nd anniversary of the comic thing). Unfortunately, most of the months were spent finding out what I can’t do in the Second Life virtual world. My initial plans had heavy use of springboards, but when I started testing, they never worked for other people. Turns out, many regions don’t allow objects to push avatars around, although they’ll work on the object’s owner. Bummer.

Eventually, I came up with the attractions listed in the ad. Those are the actual attractions currently. The comic trail will be like a roller coaster, but since roller coasters in Second Life often slow the entire region down, and aren’t all that thrilling in a virtual environment anyway, I opted for a runner-coaster. I actually ran on a roller coaster’s track in one region, and it still played the sound effects. THAT was fun. I’m a roller coaster, wheeee!!! This runner coaster will have comic panels telling the story of Kenny’s and Funky’s rivalry. Due to time, and space, I focus on the end, right with their big fight. I think this will be a rather innovative way of presenting comics. Plus, Funky’s robot is fully-rendered in 3D and is smacking at you(one of the few finished items currently there). Getting the comic panels inserted is the next thing on my list, as they’re crucial to the ride.

There will be a dodgeball room with one of the dodgeball comics on the wall. Currently, they’re beach balls. Because that’s what I have. Considering I had a springboard tester who simply came because they saw a beach ball, I believe at least one beach ball will stay for visual interest. Hopefully I can get some dodgeballs launching around at the visitor. Just outside the door will be Badgerkun bandages for sale.

The only finished attraction at the moment is the display of the latest comic in English and Spanish. I hope this will raise the awareness of the comic by being visible to passers-by. People can also watch my favorite YouTube videos, updated every time I hit “favorite” on a video. People are excited about YouTube finally being able to be viewed in Second Life. The comic and YouTube video are only visible to people with the new Viewer 2.o, otherwise I have it set as invisible. Eventually I’ll texture a message for people who have other viewers or have media turned off.

My goal for the rides is not to make imitations of real-world rides, but rather to make attractions as if theme parks originated on Second Life. I’ve ridden recreations of certain rides in Second Life(had to do my research), and they’re downright boring in a virtual setting. I’m working on re-thinking what a theme park should be on Second Life, focusing on things you can only do in the safety of a virtual environment, like dropping the guest 100 meters, putting them in the middle of several moving objects, overriding body movements for comical effect, etc. I’m really interested in seeing what possibilities there are with this. I have a park. Now I get to find ways to theme it.

I’ll have more updates as stuff happens at the park(grand opening is April 7th!), and videos will hopefully be soon. If you’re on Second Life, you can now visit and join the Kennyland news updates group to get those updates within Second Life.